Success of Green Building Advocacy Ultimately Depends on Who’s in Office
Advocacy success ultimately depends on who is holding office — on our local school boards & city councils, in our state legislatures,…
Advocacy for widespread and equitable access to sustainable, healthy built environments is becoming increasingly important within the AEC Industry. The U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) has an Advocacy Working Group charged with promoting LEED and high-performance building strategies to our various elected/appointed officials and other government staff. The Living Future Institute also offers advocacy resources, as do other industry organizations.
Engaging officials is absolutely critical. But how successful such engagement ultimately is depends highly on who is holding office — on our local school boards and city councils, in our state legislatures and in Congress. The results of the upcoming midterms will have a major impact on our ability to make the rapid changes to our built environments that are needed to address climate change as well as health and wellness.
It should be noted for the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), the largest investment in fighting climate change in U.S. history, every Republican in Congress voted against it. Republicans have also noted that, should they retake control of Congress after the midterms, there are provisions of the IRA that they may target for repeal, including some of the energy efficiency associated tax credits. “’I can’t speak specifically to specific pieces, but yes, I believe that we will try to unwind a number of the bad policies that were enacted,’ said Sen. Mike Crapo (R-Idaho), the ranking member on Finance.”
Over the course of the pandemic, we’ve seen an increased recognition of the need to improve school facility indoor air quality (IAQ), including at the recent White House Summit on Improving Indoor Air Quality. Most reading this will recognize that drive for better IAQ should also be part of a general effort to design schools that aggressively reduce embodied and operational carbon, that incorporate the concepts of biophilia and connections to nature, and that are optimized for health, safety, comfort, and learning.
But this is greatly limited by the realities of decades of deferred maintenance, funding via property taxes, having to allocate resources to gun violence related security and other supports driven by poverty and institutional racism (as opposed to society addressing these issues), consistent/historical underfunding and other attacks from Republican controlled legislatures, Republican governors, anti-public education and MAGA activists, some of whom infiltrate state and local school boards. In such contexts, sustainability and optimal health/learning strategies often become pipe dreams during planning (if they’re even considered to begin with). If they do make their way past the planning stage, they’re often “value engineered” out due to budget limitations.
Addressing the needs of transgender students in the design of school restrooms and locker rooms also becomes significantly more difficult with transphobic local and state school board members, GOP controlled legislatures, and GOP governors.
In Kansas, Republicans have a history of fueling unfounded transphobic fears that ultimately dehumanize transgender kids (and adults), making it that much harder to address their needs (restroom and otherwise). Last spring, “Rep. Cheryl Helmer [Republican] told a transgender college student she doesn’t appreciate sharing a restroom at the Statehouse with a ‘huge transgender female’ and falsely claim[ed] transgender people are assaulting ‘wee little girls’ in school restrooms.”
And at the federal level, Republican legislators have proposed a bill that would “… prohibit public schools from offering young students lessons or literature that discuss gender identity, sexual orientation and transgender individuals.” In the resulting social environments, where school boards and administrations may be wary of, outright hostile to, and/or in conflict over discussing the needs of transgender students, how effectively can AEC Industry consultants successfully meet the needs of all building occupants?
Relative to electrification, in Washington state, GOP members of the state’s building code council (SBCC) in April 2022, put forward several resolutions to delay commercial code updates requiring the use of electric heat pumps. Twenty states with Republican controlled legislatures have recently passed types of “preemptive legislation” that variously prohibit local municipalities from banning natural gas connections, including my own state of Kansas. And the results of the midterm elections will strongly influence whether that trend spreads to other states, or if some of the existing preemption laws might be expanded or repealed.
Finally, a critical service provided by AEC industry consultants to our clients and the general public is the evaluation of academic research, white papers, and manufacturer supplied data. Such evaluations are an important part of determining the optimal, contextual building solutions for creating healthy, productive, and energy/water efficient environments. This is especially important when attempting to employ newer technologies, design strategies, and/or technologies with limited associated standardized testing and performance regulations.
We need to be able to clearly communicate these assessments to every key stakeholder within the design/construction process, as well as to the general public when warranted (such as informing decision-makers and the public regarding the best evidence-based actions for making our buildings safer in response to a pandemic).
The threat of defamation/libel lawsuits from manufacturers (or actual lawsuits — case in point; and please support Dr. Marwa Zaatari) can limit our ability to openly communicate our expert opinions. No one wants to deal with the high costs of such lawsuits or the harassment and intimidation that comes with them. It can also limit the amount and quality of peer reviewed literature we have available to review when manufacturers also threaten researchers and academic publications with lawsuits.
Federal anti-SLAPP legislation would be one important tool for limiting such lawsuits, protecting consultants and researchers, and ultimately building occupants and the larger public. And recently, Congressman Jamie Raskin (D-MD) introduced the SLAPP Protection Act of 2022. While such legislation at the state level has historically received bipartisan support, it appears that Republicans in Congress are describing the legislation as “… part of a wider effort by the Biden administration and Democrats to stifle alternate views on climate change and other issues.” The outcome of the midterms will also likely determine the fate of this needed legislation, at least in the short term.
Let’s face it. The Republican party, while not the only barrier, is a large one standing in the way of sustainable, healthy built environments. If you or your company’s/organization’s goal is rapid reduction of the built environment’s embodied and operational carbon while providing safe, healthy, and productive facilities, and doing it in an equitable and inclusive manner, then there is no working with the MAGA dominated Republican party. It has no interest in doing what is required to achieve this comprehensive goal.
Greenbuild 2022 occurs this week, right before the midterms. Advocacy and policy will be the topics of several events and sessions. But perhaps the most important bit of advocacy you can do over the next week is donate to Democrats running in the midterms, make calls on their behalf, talk to your friends, family, and coworkers, and obviously vote. I don’t think Democrats have all the answers, but they’re willing to listen (which is critical for advocacy to work), they generally agree with the underlying drivers of sustainable, healthy built environments, and they still actually believe in democracy.
· “Every [bathroom] trip is a reminder that we’re not normal. It’s another agonizing internal argument. Which bathroom do I use? Do I want to use the wrong bathroom, or risk getting stared at or bullied?” — Morgan Clemmer, non-binary high school student from Alaska.
· “It feels like people aren’t listening and the people that have the power to make the most change [relative to climate change] have their hands over their ears.” — Elea Castiglione, high school student from California.
· “It’s frustrating because I could never vote, I could never run for office. My instruments to make change were never that great,” — Dallin Rima, high school student from Utah.
If we as AEC Industry professionals truly want to equitably address the needs of those occupying our buildings while aggressively reducing building emissions, then we can’t just advocate regarding policies. We must also advocate for those officials most likely to enact needed policies. And at a minimum we should be exercising our right to vote.